Wahine VB: Day 11 recap
Finished up the photos for next week’s preview. Got to have some chat time with new players. Talked about their beach day yesterday. Koelsch, who surfed for HBHS, apparently was quite the shredder.
Maglio, who wants to become a vet (studying animal science) also played ice hockey, usually the only girl on the team.
Huff has quite a sense of humor. Our photographer asked her what position she played (we are shooting action shots that are position-specific) so she said she was a libero. Our photog started preparing her for digging balls when I told him, she’s 6-3, she’s not a libero. Got a good laugh all the way around.
Pratice remains very competitive and spirited. Asked Shoji why this year, after all this time. He said he had spent time at the USA training center and that the men and women always have music. When he asked his team what they thought of the idea, they were all for it.
They alternate who does the mix. Shoji admits to sneaking in some of his stuff, including the country I mentioned the other day. The players prefer reggae and rap.
But today was very mellow, lot of Bruddah Iz and K. Reichel.
Was sitting with Chris McLachlin for a bit and we shared some observations. Asked him if Passi reminded him of anyone in terms of court demeanor and facial expression. He said Tita Ahuna, which is the same thought I had last week.
Feel like I’m repeating myself with other observations. Magill connecting well with both setters, really jumps well. Adolpho moving well and think it’s really good that she is seeing Magill across the net, seeing a big block in practice. Both middles hitting quicks and slides.
Koelsch and Higgins both doing well. Koelsch has a really nice backset on the D play for the right side players. She is very athletic. Forgot to mention yesterday that during a rally she made an impressive kick-save-set that led to a point.
Huff hitting with authority from the left and right, Greeley also taking big swings from both sides.
Team played variations on Shoji’s favorite game, baseball, where sides score ‘runs’ when putting down kills and blocks and make outs on hitting errors and being blocked.
The final grouping had the veterans against the freshmen. Pretty evenly matched. Guinasso and Kahakai both served well.
Team is off Friday morning, practice Friday afternoon. Players are finishing moving into the dorms.
Double days finish Saturday, morning practice with the scrimmage at 4 p.m. Free admission for those wanting to come down during the Fan Appreciation Pa’ina.
They’ll be off Sunday, then single practice next week leading up to the opening tournament.
Cindy, if Passi plays like Tita Ahuna, when the lights are on, that will be a very good thing for the Wahine. Tita was one of the best.
I love the impersonal information you are mentioning concerning some of the Wahine, very nice, thank you. It gets us fans to know the Wahine outside of volleyball.
Cindy, do you know when Nikki’s next arm test is, to find out if she will be cleared to play?
Magill, from the little video I have seen of her, seems to have a very quick jump, also. Gets up, down, and back up again, very quickly.
Once Nikki is cleared to play, the only question that I would have is CHEMISTRY. It sounds like this team has the talent, and depth. If this team can build that cohesiveness, and chemistry, who knows how far they can go. It seems, at the moment, if Shoji needs to go small, and quick, he has the players to do so. On the other hand, if Shoji needs to go big, he also has the players to do that, also. It is not every year that Dave has these options available to him.
Cindy, are there other comments McLachlin made that you can share with us. Thank you for keeping NaWahine fans informed. Although there seem to be some clashes among posters, I’m sure they and I are all appreciative of your efforts.
On the news last night they stated that season tickets for volleyball was nearing an all time high. I feel that your profiles and blog information has been a big part of the reason for the increase. The power of the press at work!
1. as I wrote before, didn’t say she plays like Ahuna.
Her mannerisms, court demeanor, facial expressions and the way she views the court reminds me of Ahuna. Which is what McLachlin was agreeing.
Believe they’ll re-evaluate Monday.
Taylor is participating in warmups, did have ice on it yesterday.
She remains very upbeat but frustrated.
Chatted a bit with her about her love of literature, Shakespeare especially. said she had a great English teacher in high school. She was a TA as a freshman and got to be part of the Senior track in terms of what they were reading.
3. Think we spent more time remembering some trips we had been on, like the 88 NCAA tournament, and the informal trivia contests we had. He hasn’t come to many practices so he was asking me about things.
We talked about Kalei Greeley’s great uncle Jake Highland. told him about the connection I had made with her and him. He actually had played against Highland when he was at Stanford and Highland in the air force.
A couple of things I remember that we agreed on, nothing new or earth-shattering
Koelsch is a good setter
Magill can jump
Kahakai is solid
Shoji has options and it will depend on how he decides to use players at the various positions.
4. thanks Ron but doubt I have anything to do with it. The program sells itself and the paper hasn’t changed much in the way of its coverage, even from when I started in 81 (you had double the coverage until 2010 with two papers) and the blog has been here for a number of years.
It could be that people realize Shoji isn’t going to be around forever and may want to be here for this 40th. Stanley Ching said the booster club hasn’t shown any dramatic increase, tho.
Half the team is from Hawaii, including a number of freshmen, so you might have that influx of family and friends.
I think it’s a combination of things, some are mentioned here but I also think that Wahine fans like to spread the news and they get the info from various places. It really is a complete team effort from the supporters.
“Shoji has options and it will depend on how he decides to use players at the various positions.”
For me, that’s the million dollar question. How he decides to use his players. Like many, I have been going to Na Wahine matches since I was at Manoa in the mid 80’s. And prior to that, I did watch the championship teams win on TV. Man those were the good old days. Even back then, there were questionable decisions with regards to who stays in, and who stays out of the matches. Sure second guessing any coach is easy so I don’t. When I was an active VB club coach, I had pressure from all sorts of sources to play certain players (parents, staff, other VB coaches) just by touting the skills of the player and in the end I would go with it. I mean it takes a village right? But every now and then I would play a bench player and that opportunity made them starters. The opposite was also true. I would give my unconsciously favorites all the chances in the world to play even when they should have come out. And it wasn’t because of chemistry or that the offense were built around them, it was mostly because I wanted them to start and play. That non- objectivity is the most dangerous, especially if you lose. If I had to do it over, I may have had a different approach to who starts/plays and who doesn’t. I would even implement a platoon like mentality. Maybe play certain platoons according to the opposition. IMHO.
http://youtu.be/8z7qa1Wz7e0
Blast from the past… to follow the rest of the match, follow the parts… this is part one.
Nice article on Passi. Didn’t realize she hasn’t been playing vball all that long. So still plenty of up-side to her game perhaps. Looking forward to seeing her play. And seeing the Cubi-Otineru-like power in her shots.
10. thanks.
11. ditto. very nice young woman. agree plenty of up-side as she develops. but an athlete and very determined. but there will be an adjustment from the JC ranks.
9 i’d like to think that the coach puts forth the best players possible, but yes i tend to agree, that possibly the coach may have his favorites; that he starts, despite maybe not being good enough to win, but i have faith in the coach of 40 seasons that he will know what it will take to win!
How is Passi’s passing?
When Dave mentioned that Passi might be the most physical player they ever had, I thought, Wow, that is a statement. The Wahine through the years had some very physical players. I cannot wait to see Passi play now. I just want to see how hard she can hit a volleyball. Thinking the opposing blockers might just need to wear padding on their hands, when she hits a volleyball.
14. coming a long. good platform. not sure if she’ll be in the passing rotation yet.
depends on how the lineup is set. Shoji said that he’ll use two outsides and libero in the passing rotation. And that they’ll likely go with a true opposite this season. At this point it appears that Passi is that first OPP option. Huff and Long also have been out there. Greeley can hit right as well.
Cindy, when Shoji said a true opposite, does it mean that the starting RS in the three rotations in the front will not hit once on the left side? That’s the first that I have heard that particular term from him.
When Shoji says he is going with a true OPP, I am thinking there will be a lot more sets going to the player in that position, then in the past. Sort of like how the men run their offense. The best hitter in the Men’s game, usually plays the OPP position. I may be wrong, but that is the way I am seeing it.
Or maybe he just means true opposite because that’s the position Passi has played her whole volleyball career.
I doubt if Shoji mean’t MORE sets going to the RS with the term true OPP. As I asked, it probably means that the starting RS will not hit once on the left as in Shoji’s hitting system in the past years.
When Shoji says “true opposite,” it could mean using that player the way the position is traditionally used – hit mostly from the right, include back right. It could also mean a player who has trained as an opposite for most of her career – Passi, Kaela Goodman, Chanteal Satele, Aneli Otineru. The other right sides in the past were converted players – Jen Carey (setter), Nohea Tano (MB), Jessica Keefe (MB), Tara Hittle (OH).
Chanteal and Aneli were outside hitters (left) in club and high school.
21, HOT, I believe you are right, the OPP will hit predominantly from the right, including Back Right. Hitting out of the Back Right, is something the Wahine rarely do, but sounds like they will do more of it this season. So it sounds like, besides hitting out of the Back Middle (Pipe), they are going to hit out of the Back Right, also.
17-23. Yes, true OPP will stay on the right, one L will stay left. one L hits twice on the LS, once on the right. He said they will be very traditional to start.
The plan for Taylor was LS but they were thinking also she’d be hitting right-back
22. true but were RS at UH.
Cindy, let me know if I am wrong, but whoever plays OPP would have to be a pretty good server, also, for that person to stay in the rotation and be able to hit out of the Right Back.
According to Dave Shoji, when he was interviewed on KGMB, Nikki Taylor will miss the 1st weekend of the season. He is hoping to get her back by either the 2nd, or 3rd weekend of the season. That means, both Greeley and Huff will play the Left Outside Position the first Sunday, of the season, against SDSU.
This would be the year that they should have the pink jersey’s and auction them like last time.
agree with Hot above … and to add to it, i think Shoji just means that who ever is lined up at opposite will not relied upon as a primary or even a part-time passer. the player asked to play opposite will likely just focus on hitting and blocking/defense.
27. they will wear pink this year, believe in October. not sure if they’ll auction them off. surprised since it’s a money-maker
26. Not necessarily. Long is an option on the left.
22. I believe they were recruited to play RS in college. Wasn’t Otineru an OPP at CSI and was actually more effective on the right than on the left while at UH? Satele also played right side at St. Mary’s, if I’m not mistaken.